


i'm an american cliché (missin' a girl in a french café)

by AlderaanianPrincess (darthnoire), darthnoire



Series: reylo oneshots [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bathroom Sex, Ben Solo is a gentleman, Drinking, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Happy Ending, Mention of alcohol, No alcohol abuse, One Night Stands, Oneshot, Semi-Public Sex, Soulmate AU, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex, porn with little plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:35:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29293788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthnoire/pseuds/AlderaanianPrincess, https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthnoire/pseuds/darthnoire
Summary: A oneshot inspired by Finneas'American Cliché.Ben meets Rey at the airport bar and neither of them can deny the attraction they feel for each other.
Relationships: Rey & Ben Solo, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: reylo oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151402
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	i'm an american cliché (missin' a girl in a french café)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I hope you enjoy this very self-indulgent oneshot inspired by Finneas' song. I am obsessed with it, and as I listened to it, this fic came to life. 
> 
> Let me know what you think in the comments. 
> 
> You can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/darthnoire)

_I'm an American cliché_

_Missin' a girl in a French café_

_I say, "God damn, you're beautiful"_

_You blush and duck out of frame_

It was terribly early. It was certainly too early to be out of bed, if anyone cared to ask him, but his mother had insisted and he had definitely denied his mother for far too long.

The night was oppressing. The darkness threatened to settle like a mantle over the Earth, preventing the sun from ever rising again.

When he was younger he had liked these early hours of the morning. He could be alone with his thoughts and his feelings that so often seemed to match the dark sky. 

The stars had been glimmers of hope he had had from time to time, but their light wasn’t enough to bring the day - not like the sun. So he would stay up to watch the sky slowly turn. He would watch the light blue line on the horizon grow, until hues of yellow and orange emerged and painted the sky. 

In that moment he always felt at peace. As if he knew the darkness in his life would one day abate too, to be replaced with something brighter - better. He would wait for the first ray of sunshine to emerge in the horizon before he retired to the house. 

The morning had symbolised hope. Hope of a better day. Hope of a better life.

That had been a lifetime ago. Ben Solo knew better now. Those feelings of wonder and longing he had felt so long ago at watching the sun rise had dissipated; crushed by the reality of life. His life would forever be cast in darkness. There was no sun, nor light to offer him reprieve from the night.

Ben was sitting at the airport bar. He nursed the drink in his hand as he watched the sky out of habit. 

On the horizon the sky had just started to turn blue, but neither the stars nor the dark sky seemed to want to concede to Eos just yet.

Ben gulped the rest of his drink and set it on the counter. He asked the barman for another one.

The TV played in the background. He knew exactly what they were reporting. The only thing they had focused on for the past week. The blonde reporter asked and tried to answer the same questions that had already been asked a thousand times.

_The man who we thought to be Kylo Ren is in fact Armitage Hux, an actor paid to be the face of the company._

_So who is Kylo Ren?_

_What does he look like and why did he quit so soon after assuming his role as CEO of the First Order?_

He had released a public statement announcing Kylo Ren’s resignation as CEO of the First Order to the New York number one business magazine at the same time as Hux gave a live interview about the company and their projects for the future. Needless to say it made all the front pages as the scandal of the year. 

Ben Solo had toppled Snoke's legacy along with everything he had tried to build in a matter of minutes, exposing every single illegal transaction the First Order had been involved in for the past decade.

He smiled inwardly, staring at the bottom of his glass while the reporter kept relaying the facts.

Ben had tried to deny who he was and where he came from for so long, and yet as soon as he had the opportunity to quit and bring down the First Order with him, he played a Skywalker-Solo card. He resigned in the most dramatic way possible. His family truly had a knack for drama.

The barman set his new drink in front of him and Ben acknowledged him with a grunt, too tired to offer anything else; too tired to offer something more polite.

He looked out the large windows. It was still dark, but the light blue line in the horizon had expanded. 

The brunette woman in the corner sat with her legs folded under her. The book she was reading was worn and old, full of colourful post-it notes on the side. She was too far away for him to be able to make out the title without his glasses. 

She lifted her eyes from the book and offered him a small smile as if she had known he’d been staring. Her cheeks exhibited a slight blush noticeable even in the dim lights of the airport bar. Ben smiled back before returning his attention back to the glass in front of him.

He removed his suit jacket and carefully placed it over the stool to his right. Despite it being nighttime still, it was warm. The kind of warmth that lingered through the night and brought the promise of a hot day.

_(Okay)_

_Too little to do for too long and_

_Too little of you for my songs to be anything but lonely_

_In a couple weeks, you'll own me_

_Too tired to sleep, good morning_

_And I'm too wired to heed the warnin'_

_That there's danger in the summer_

_The calm before the thunder_

He rubbed his eyes in an attempt to chase away his tiredness. It had been too long since he had had a proper night of sleep, the last couple of weeks a whirlwind of arrangements and meetings he had had to deal with. Even as he finally laid in bed at the end of the day, sleep rarely came to claim him. He was running on caffeine and willpower alone. He had been for quite some time. The only thing that managed to somewhat cover the dark circles under his eyes was a forty-dollar smudge-proof concealer and foundation.

On top of the downfall of his professional life, he had also had to face the ghosts he had been trying to avoid for so many years. 

As soon as his statement was made public he received a call from his mother. It was the first call in years he hadn’t either ignored or sent straight to voicemail. They talked, they cried. Leia asked him to visit her in Paris, where his family had moved to after Ben Solo became Kylo Ren. After some convincing on her part and some reluctance on his, he accepted. He wasn’t ready to see his mother, nor his father, and much less his brother Poe, but he had been running for too long. Ignoring his roots for too long.

As if on cue his phone vibrated in his pocket. _Mother_ , the screen read. “Hello,” he answered.

“Ben. Are you at the airport already?”

He sighed. At her insistence he had decided to arrive at the airport four hours before his flight, “Yeah, I’m here.” 

“Are you sure? Because it wouldn’t be the first you lost a flight because you arrived too late at the airport.”

Ben grunted inwardly. That had been years ago, when he’d still been at college in the UK and had wanted to visit his family for Thanksgiving.

“Your brother will be picking you up,” Leia continued at noticing his lack of a verbal response.

He hummed that time, confirming he had heard her.

His mother wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it. She wanted Ben and his adoptive brother to reconcialite. In all honesty, so did he, but perhaps not on his first day back. Not when his sleep schedule would be all upside down.

“Then we’ll have breakfast together. The rest of the day is yours. I’m assuming you’ll want to sleep since you’ve got your interview the next day in the afternoon. You’ll be jet lagged but the faster you clear this up the better. I know this hasn’t been easy on you, but your father and I-”

His mother kept rambling but his brain got stuck at the word ‘interview’. He frowned and gulped the rest of his drink. It burned his throat on its way down.

“Whoa-whoa. Interview?” he whispered the last word out, concerned about prying ears and eyes.

“The one I arranged for you. They were very accommodating, I told them you were visiting us in Paris and they said they’d fly someone over.”

He could feel a headache coming. 

“Why did you do it?”

“Sweetie, c’mon. Do you really think Snoke is going to let this slide? He’ll expose you as soon as he gets the chance, so it’s better if you do it first.”

He supposed he couldn’t argue with that logic.

“Alright. Fine,” he conceded with a groan as he twirled his glass around on the wooden counter.

The barman saw him play with the empty glass and asked if he wanted another drink.

“Are you drinking? What time is it there?” 

“Mother, it’s four in the morning. I never went to bed, so technically it’s still the night for me, which is an appropriate time for a drink,” he rolled his eyes, angry at himself for even attempting to justify himself. 

Before she could start lecturing him, he bid his goodbyes, promising to see everyone soon and hung up the phone.

He released a sigh of relief as he pocketed the device once again.

He palmed the pockets of both his slacks and shirt, double-checking he had his passport, wallet and plane ticket with him. He had already dropped his suitcase at the check in, so that was one less thing to worry about.

Ben was so lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t even realised the brunette women who’d been sitting in the corner had occupied the stool to his left.

“I’ll have what he’s having,” she asked the barman with a smile. The tilt of her voice had a softness to it, that was only heightened by her british accent.

He observed her from the corner of his eye, unsure if he should say something or keep to himself.

The first ray of sunshine broke through on the horizon, the light blue taking more and more of the darkness. Yet he knew if he looked behind him he would be able to see the dark night sky in the horizon still.

“I’m Rey,” the woman next to him said as she extended him her hand.

Her voice turned his attention back to her.

She was gorgeous. One of the most beautiful women he had ever laid eyes on. Her skin was tanned, dotted by freckles that highlighted the rich hazelnut colour of her eyes. Her shoulder length auburn-hair was tied in a half-do that framed her face perfectly. Her smile was mesmerising. 

“I’m-”, he hesitated. If anyone was watching their interaction, they would think he got tongue tied. They wouldn’t be quite right. He liked to believe that despite his rather bleak life he did alright when it came to romance or one time flings. So the reason why he faltered had nothing to do with the woman in front him, but rather himself. Ben hadn’t gone by his birth name in a long time. He had been introducing himself as Kylo Ren for the past ten years. And he was finally faced with the moment where he could turn his life upside down and leave the past in the past, “I’m Ben. Nice to meet you.”

He shook her hand. The smile she offered him was all dimples and he felt his heart do a flip in his chest.

“Drowning your sorrows?” Rey asked with a tilt of her chin, eyeing the glass of liquor in front of him.

“I could say the same for you,” he gestured towards her own glass with his hand, a teasing smile dancing on his lips.

“Touché,” she replied with a matching smile before offering a small toast and drinking some of the liquid in her glass. He followed suit.

They talked, they laughed. 

Talking to Rey was easy, effortless. They understood each other. There wasn’t a moment of awkwardness nor the need for small talk. Neither even had to mention their line of work. Something Ben was grateful for, because the last thing he intended to do was lie to this amazing, striking woman he had just met.

_I'm an American cliché_

_Missin' a girl in a French café_

_I say, "God damn, you're beautiful"_

_You blush and duck out of frame_

_I'm an American cliché_

_Missin' a girl in a French café_

_I say, "How'd I get along so long without you"_

_And you say, "Same"_

The sun slowly travelled across the sky, at last succeeding in chasing the night away. As time passed, inevitably the hour of his flight also approached. 

He paid for Rey’s drinks, grabbed his jacket and bid her goodbye. Before he could leave she asked him if he minded walking her to her gate. Ben complied. He too wasn’t quite ready to part ways yet.

They walked close together, unable to resist the gravitational pull that seemed to have brought them together. Their hands brushed on occasion and he felt electricity coursing through his body every time they did. He didn’t remember ever feeling this way. Or if he ever did, it was perhaps many years ago, when had been nothing but a gangly teenager. 

Before they reached her gate, Ben halted them, his hand landing on her shoulder in a featherlight touch, “Rey… I-” he started not quite sure where his speech was leading. He wanted to ask if she felt it too, but he was too afraid of her answer.

Good thing he never had to finish his sentence.

Rey grabbed him by his tie and pulled him down to her, causing their lips to crash together. 

It only took him a second to respond in kind, his lips sliding over hers in a frenzy. 

She had awakened a sort of hunger inside of him. A hunger that burned and only Rey could satisfy. 

His hands flew to her hips, allowing him to pull her body flush against his. He vaguely noticed he could encircle the span of her waist with both of his hands. For some reason that thought alone caused his heart to somersault in his chest. 

The strange looks from passersby were a small concern on the back of his mind. He didn’t care. It was all inconsequential. Especially when he could feel the softness of Rey’s skin under his palms. Especially when he could discover the taste of her with his tongue and lips. Especially when he could hear the small hums from the back of her throat as he kissed her thoroughly. And especially when she threatened to consume all of his senses.

Ben traced the seam of her lips with his tongue asking for entrance. She granted it with a soft groan that went straight to his groin. 

He was never one for public affection displays, but in that moment he really didn’t mind it one bit.

Rey was the one to break the kiss. Her cheeks were a delightful shade of red, and her lips looked thoroughly kissed. She was a sight to behold. Ben couldn’t hold back the grin that took over his features.

She looked around before grabbing his hand with a devilish smile and pulling him behind her. He wondered where they were going, but he lacked the strength and the willpower. Deep down he didn’t really care. He’d follow her to the ends of the Earth. 

The way her yellow summer dress hugged her form was distracting. Her long tanned legs peaked from under the bright and soft material.

 _God damn, you’re beautiful_ , he thought to himself.

“Thank you,” she whispered with a blush covering her cheeks, “You’re not so bad yourself.” 

He hadn’t even realised he had said those words out loud. In any other circumstances he’d feel embarrassed, but her compliment had him on cloud nine.

It was only too late he realised Rey had led him to the mens toilets. They had been cordoned off and there was a yellow maintenance sign in front of the door. Rey contoured the sign and did quick work on the cordon, releasing it from its clasp. She then pushed him inside and locked the door behind them. Once inside, she attacked his lips once more.

There was no restraint on her part this time. Her lips, tongue and teeth devoured him with an unrelenting fervour. 

Ben let himself drown in her. He let his teeth sink into her bottom lip, eliciting a moan from her. She wove her arms around his neck and played with the thick hair at the nape of his neck. He explored her hips and her waist, bunching up the fabric of her dress in the process. 

Rey rose to her tiptoes to have better access to his mouth and he used the opportunity to move his hands down, until he reached her ass, giving it a gentle squeeze that had her moan against his lips. His hands kept travelling south, until he could grasp her thighs, and used the advantage to haul her up against him. She didn’t hesitate to snake her legs around his torso, aligning their centres. They both keened at the contact.

Ben blindly walked them to the sink.

Before he set Rey down, he removed his suit jacket, with Rey’s help, and placed it over the cold surface. Rey smiled at him, “What a gentleman.”

He brushed his lips over her neck before whispering, “Is that who you want me to be?”. He could see a trail of goosebumps travelling down her skin. 

“I want you, Ben. Whoever you are,” those words fuelled him onwards.

He sunk his teeth down on the soft spot where her neck and shoulder met, soothing it with his tongue once she hissed in protest. His soft inistrations had her mewling, a sound that warmed something deep inside of him. 

Rey grabbed a fisftul of his hair, deepening their kiss, causing her to moan his name in response. The sound travelled south, settling between his legs. He couldn’t help the involuntary thrust of his hips that had their centres aligning once more. Rey thrust hers in response, before reaching for his shirt. She untucked it from his slacks and started undoing the buttons with remarkable dexterity. He kept kissing her as her fingers did quick work of the fabric.

Ben’s hands travelled up her bare legs, lifting the dress out of the way. She was wearing light pink lacy knickers. The fabric felt decadent under his touch, much like her hands on his skin, travelling up and down lazily, exploring every inch of his torso. His skin burned at her touch. He feared he would combust on the spot, and she hadn’t even reached his cock yet. 

As if she could read his mind her hands met his leather belt, and undid it, revealing to her the zip and button of his slacks. 

He stopped kissing her for a moment so he could ask, “Are you sure?”

“I was the one who dragged you here, I am sure.” That was all the answer he needed before letting her undo his trousers and pull them down.

Her small hand reached for his already hardened length and palmed it through the fabric of his boxers. He released a groan against her mouth. She swallowed it hungrily.

Ben didn’t waste another minute. He lifted Rey up from the sink so he could pull her lacy underwear down, baring her to the cold air. His fingers met her wet and warm entrance. 

“So, so wet. Is that all for me?” he purred while coating his fingers. 

Rey didn’t reply with an answer other than a throaty hum of satisfaction. That wasn’t the right answer. “Tell me. With words” he requested hoarsely, as he dipped a long finger inside of her, in search of the soft spot he knew would make her cry out. He found it. “Yes, Ben. Yes!” She was louder than he had intended, and part of him worried someone could hear them, but his ravenous side revelled in how utterly undone she sounded. Because of him. For him.

He inserted a second finger, slowly pumping in and out of her, her walls stretching to accommodate his digits. He hummed in satisfaction, kissing her fervently.

“These. Off,” Rey requested against his mouth with a single touch of her hand to his underwear. Ben removed his fingers from her, causing her to groan at the loss. He didn’t intend to keep her waiting for long, though.

Ben pulled down his boxers, finally freeing his erection. He didn’t miss the way Rey licked her bottom lip as she eyed it. She wrapped her hand around him without hesitation, slowly pumping him. Her touch was sinful. He groaned as he let his head fall back. 

He licked his dry lips before diving once more for Rey’s mouth. Her kisses were addicting and intoxicating.

While it was much harder to keep his touch steady while Rey touched his length, he returned his fingers to their rightful place inside of her. He worked them slowly but firmly, hitting that spot inside of her over and over, before focusing his attention on her clit. He rubbed it gently with two fingers, until she asked for more friction. He complied, applying more pressure to it, until her heady moans filled the space. She was panting, so close to the edge, yet not quite there yet. He was quite possibly hooked to the way she keened and moaned at his touch. 

Ben reached for his wallet. It was inside the pocket of the jacket he had laid on the sink. He removed a condom and ripped the package open with his teeth. He rolled the condom onto his length and rested the tip of his thickened member at her warm and slick entrance.

“Rey,” he couldn’t help the way her name left his lips so wantonly.

She reached for his length and pushed him inside her. He practically came just at that first feel of her walls clenching around him.

Ben pushed on slowly, letting her adjust to him and his size. She lifted her legs and her hips, giving him more access. He gripped her thighs to keep her steady.

Her mouth was on his neck and chest. Her teeth, lips and tongue, driving him slowly mad. Her fingers were entangled in his hair, her nails scraping against his scalp.

Ben pushed the last stretch, finally burying himself completely inside of her. They both released a lewd sound at the feel of each other. They stayed like that for a while. Revelling in the feeling of that moment.

“Move,” she begged him. He didn’t intend to let her beg again. He pulled slowly back, the head of his member remaining buried inside her, before he thrust into her in a single steady motion that had her crying out. He mimicked the movement over and over, letting himself get lost in the rhythm of their bodies moving together.

“Harder. Faster,” Rey eventually requested. He complied, thrusting into her ruthlessly. Rey tangled her legs behind him, shifting her ass until it was on the edge of the sink. He thrust deeper into her. He felt his vision blur at the sheer pleasure. 

They could read each other like an open book and know what the other wanted without words, as if they were two parts of the same whole.

Ben reached between them, so he could touch her. His fingers found the spot he’d been looking for at last. He rubbed it as she had instructed him earlier. 

“Ben,” she moaned. “Rey,” he groaned in response.

He kept thrusting relentlessly into her, as he worked her clit. It wasn’t long until she was panting and moaning in his arms, her legs shaking around him as her orgasm washed over her. 

She collapsed against him, sweaty and thoroughly satisfied. 

He had felt her walls clench around him as she climaxed. It was enough to get him closer to his own edge. His thrusts became more erratic as he chased his own release. She clenched once more around him and he thrust one last time before spilling into the condom.

It was his turn to collapse against her. 

He was panting hard, trying to catch his breath.

They stayed in each other’s arms for a while, as they winded down. 

Eventually he removed himself from her, discarded the condom and entered one of the cubicles so he could clean and dress himself. From the shuffling sounds he heard, he knew Rey was doing something similar.

They exited at the same time, a smile on both their faces.

“Thank you. I needed that.”

“My pleasure,” Ben replied with a smirk.

She reached for her bag, that she had left on the sink, and in the process handed him his wrinkled suit jacket. He grabbed with a whispered thanks. He inspected it with one hand. Yeah… He couldn’t put that on again. Only a good ironing could get rid of those wrinkles.

Ben’s gaze settled once more on Rey as she touched the screen of her phone and screeched, “My flight! I’m so sorry, I have to go or I’ll miss it.” She kissed him on the cheek before dashing out of the public bathroom, leaving him alone with his own thoughts and feelings.

He couldn’t describe the feeling that stirred inside of him as he watched her leave.

_Graveyard, Jim Morrison forever_

_In my arms, they'll have to bury us together_

_'Cause I'm never gonna let you go_

_Uh-oh, uh-oh_

_Missed my flight, makin' love in the morning_

_While everybody else was boarding_

_They love to say they told you so_

_I know, I know, I know_

Ben looked at himself in the mirror. 

He was thoroughly debauched, yet he couldn’t wipe the smug smile off his face. He tried to ignore the dark feeling that emerged inside of him.

He was still trying to fix his appearance when the airport PA system announced the last call for his flight. Ben got his phone out to check the time, as if by some miracle the announcement had been wrong. No such luck. The time on the screen confirmed his worst fear.

He grabbed all of his possessions and started running. 

Ben hadn’t even checked his gate beforehand. It had let himself get completely trapped under Rey’s spell. He looked around for a screen so he could check the gate number. If he hadn’t been so frazzled he would’ve paid more attention to the announcement. 

He released a groan as the gate flashed on the screen. It was practically on the opposite side of the airport. He knew without a shadow of a doubt he wouldn’t make it on time. All because he had been distracted by a beautiful woman.

He still tried to make it. He rushed to the gate, nearly colliding with a family of four that didn’t move out of the way quickly enough. He practically tripped over one of the suitcases. It didn’t stop him. He threw a quick apology over his shoulder and kept running. 

When Ben finally made it, the attendants had just given the all clear for the flight to depart. He was too late. 

His phone rang in his pocket. A look at the screen revealed it was his mother. _Great._ If he answered she’d know for sure he hadn’t boarded, but the fact the phone had rang to begin with would give her a pretty conclusive clue. 

He took a deep breath and readied himself for the onslaught. He answered it, and didn't even have time to say anything before Leia did.

“Have you boarded yet?”

He scratched the back of his neck and scrunched his eyes before admitting, “I missed the flight.”

“I’m not even going to say I told you so, Ben!”

“I know! I know! I know! And I didn’t miss it for the reasons you think.”

“Why did you then?”

Why had he missed the flight? Well, he couldn’t exactly admit he’d just had sex in a public bathroom with a complete stranger. 

“There was a-a-”, he fumbled for a word, “a setback.”

“You mean traffic? I warned you. I knew you’d be late.” His mother sighed on the other side of the phone, “Just try to get on the next one. No setbacks this time. Let me know what time you’ll be departing so I can tell Poe.”

“I will.”

“See you soon.”

He hung up.

Ben managed to arrange new tickets for a new direct flight to Paris in a couple of hours. He made sure not to get distracted by any other beautiful, freckled, and tanned women. Not that it was a particularly difficult task. Especially when his mind was already solely focusing on one - Rey. 

He couldn’t get her out of his head. It surely was bad news when one couldn’t free their mind from the person with whom they’d had a one time fling.

He tried to read, and scroll aimlessly through his social media, in an attempt to clear his mind.

_I'm an American cliché_

_Missin' a girl in a French café_

_I say, "God damn, you're beautiful"_

_You blush and duck out of frame_

_I'm an American cliché_

_Missin' a girl in a French café_

_I say, "How'd I get along, so long without you"_

_And you say, "Same"_

The flight to Paris was uneventful. Except perhaps for the fact he couldn’t stop thinking about Rey. All his dreams were haunted by the image of her - by her smell, by her touch, by the way she had keened and moaned under his ministrations and the way she had breathlessly whined his name. It had been torture. The longest flight of his life. 

Once he made it to Paris, all the reunions he had dreaded and tried to avoid for the last ten years all happened in a matter of hours. It was emotionally and psychologically exhausting. Han, Leia, Poe and him all caught up. They cleared the air, and healed some wounds. However, there were others - deeper ones - that would take longer to mend. _One step at a time_ , he kept telling himself. 

The next day, he had gotten out of bed too early, and had decided to go for a wander through the streets of Paris. His sleep schedule was still completely haywire and he knew it would take some time to get used to Paris’ time zone.

Ben tried to keep busy. He walked past some of the cultural sites and landmarks of the capital, trying to run away from his own thoughts. Although Paris was in fact beautiful, his mind was too far away to properly appreciate the allure of the city. 

He was dreading the interview his mother had scheduled for that afternoon, yet also aware he couldn’t escape it. Just as he couldn’t escape reality. Snoke would come for him. It was better if Ben anticipated his moves and beat him at his own game. Starting by revealing who Kylo Ren truly was. Or had been.

Despite desperately wanting to escape his professional life, that was not the main reason why Ben was walking aimlessly through Paris. No, the main reason was Rey. Rey and the mark he had noticed on his forearm as he undressed for a shower that morning. A mark he had never had ever until that same day. Or the day before.

_Come on over now, you're one layover down?_

_No one we know around_

_Don't want the city without you_

_I want you_

_We'll go all over town_

_No one that we know around_

_Can't say I'm sober now_

_Do something I'm not allowed to_

_I want you_

The mark on his arm was in the shape of a semicircle crowned by ten perpendicular lines of varying sizes. It reminded him of the sun - more specifically a rising sun. 

As soon as Ben had set eyes on the mark that resembled a tattoo, he knew what it was. He had heard of them before, but he never thought his skin would be branded with one. He never thought he’d be the kind of person to have a soulmate. He never thought he’d be the kind of person to have a soulmate mark. 

He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. There was no doubt in his mind who had been the cause of the appearance of his mark. 

His soulmate was Rey. he was either the luckiest man alive, or the unluckiest. It was so on brand of him - meeting his soulmate, have sex with her in a public bathroom, and only realise fourty-eight hours later. 

The Universe certainly had a sick sense of humour.

What were the odds of him ever finding Rey again? He didn’t know what she did for a living, or where she lived. Hell, he didn’t even know her last time… So his chances were practically non-existent. Besides what if he was the only one with the mark? What if Rey didn’t have one? What if she hadn’t felt the same connection he had? What if… What if...

He groaned, which earned him some strange looks from passersby. He knew he was overthinking. Soulmate marks were a two way street, so of course Rey also had one. 

He wondered if she would look for him, as he was sure he would for her. 

It was still unbelievable how his life had suddenly changed at the appearance of that black tattoo on his arm, that was accompanied by a feeling in his heart that he would never be able to shake. Something engrained so deep inside of him, Ben knew he would never be the same again. He could only wonder how he had gotten along so long without Rey. Without this warm and all-consuming feeling.

Weary of having spent the greatest part of his morning walking, carrying a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts, he decided to head slightly earlier to the café where he would be meeting with the interviewer.

He opted for sitting outside, so he could enjoy the parisien summer sunshine. 

Ben ordered some food and busied himself with a book, letting the hours pass him by. The book offered him some reprieve, his mind temporarily transported from reality to a world of fiction.

_I'm an American cliché_

_Missin' a girl in a French café_

_I say, "God damn, you're beautiful"_

_You blush and duck out of frame_

_I'm an American cliché_

_Missin' a girl in a French café_

_I say, "How'd I get along so long without you"_

_And you say, "Same"_

Tired of reading, he resorted to people watching. His mind automatically strayed to Rey, wondering what she was doing. Where she was.

The ringtone of his phone pulled him out of his reverie. It was a message from the interviewer saying they had arrived. He looked around the street in search of them. His eyes landed on a figure who had just crossed the road and was making their way to the café. The figure stopped as Ben’s gaze settled on them. 

The hazelnut eyes belonged to a beautiful, freckled and tanned woman wearing a soft pink summer dress that left her arms exposed and revealed a rising sun tattoo on her forearm.

They smiled at the same time.

_I'm an American cliché_

_Missin' a girl in a French café_


End file.
